This Year's Love
by columbiachica
Summary: A prequel to "The Luckiest"; Literati


This Year's Love  
By columbiachica (kat2005)  
  
Author's Note: You guys seemed to like "The Luckiest," so I decided to try and write another one-parter, a prequel. The operative word being, "try." Anyway, here it is. Be kind. The title is taken from the David Gray song of the same name.  
  
Disclaimer: I asked Amy Sherman-Palladino nicely, but she said I'd screw up her characters. Thwarted again. They're not mine.  
  
  
Rory Gilmore couldn't see. She was climbing the stairs to the apartment, and trying to look over the top of the box she was carrying, but she was unable to see an inch in front of her. When she got to the door of the apartment, she ran head-on into the door, hoping it hadn't been latched shut. Luckily, it was open, and Rory fell into the room. Because she couldn't see, she tripped on another box that she had left lying in the entryway.  
  
"Oops," she exclaimed in surprise. She dropped the box on top of the one she had tripped on and wiped the sweat that was beading on her forehead. A slow smile spread across her face when she looked around the room: all her boxes had finally been moved in. With a sigh of relief, Rory sank onto the pile of boxes she had made.  
  
The living room was crammed full of her stuff. It amazed her that she had managed to accumulate this much stuff after living in a dorm room for a year. Most of the boxes were full of books, making good sitting surfaces. With a chuckle, Rory contemplated just keeping them in the boxes rather than unpacking them.  
  
As she was getting up to find some suitable clothing to change into, she heard footsteps behind her. "I know you're not big on security and all, but leaving the door wide open probably isn't such a good idea."  
  
Rory grinned. "I was hoping for a blind burglar."  
  
"Good luck." Jess wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead. "You moved your stuff in."  
  
"All by myself," Rory said proudly.   
  
"I'm impressed."  
  
"I knew you would be," Rory answered, batting her eyelashes.  
  
"Hungry?" Jess asked, moving toward the kitchen.  
  
"Starved," Rory replied, following him. He gestured to the table, and she sat, watching him with fascination as he took out the ingredients for stir-fry. Methodically, without a recipe, Jess assembled the meal as Rory continued to observe him. As he worked, she tilted her head and looked at him, smiling a tiny smile of satisfaction. He set a plate of food in front of her and Rory smiled. "I'm impressed."  
  
"I knew you would be," Jess said, scooping some into his mouth.  
  
"I should learn how to cook."  
  
"I tried to teach you. Remember that little incident with the fire?"  
  
"Hmm. Maybe we should give up tutoring each other."  
  
"I think it would be wise," Jess agreed, smiling.  
  
"I could take a class at school."  
  
"Does Harvard have a home-ec class?"  
  
"Funny. I'm sure I could find one." Rory nodded emphatically as she shoveled another helping into her mouth. "Maybe Jill will take it with me."  
  
"Maybe you two could find a safer class to take together. Like Fundamentals of Coordination."  
  
"Funny. You and Bernie Mac should go on tour," Rory retorted, scraping her plate clean.  
  
Jess tipped his watch toward him. "Two and a half minutes. I have never seen anyone eat that fast."  
  
"I just hauled my entire dorm room over here!" Rory defended. Jess just smirked and looked to his food. Rory was about to start yelling, but she just sighed. "Never mind," she conceded, rinsing her plate off at the sink. She filled one side up and put soap in the water, then dumped her plate in. "I'm going to start unpacking," she called over her shoulder as she went into the living room.  
  
Twenty minutes later, when Jess had finished all the dishes, he joined Rory in the living room. Before he went in, though, he leaned against the archway in between the kitchen and the living room. She was bent over a box of books, pulling them out one by one, and reading the titles. Jess could see her lips move and she mouthed the titles to herself. Distinctly, he saw her mouth, "Oliver Twist," and smile to herself. When he crouched down beside her, she said, "Hey, Dodger."  
  
"Hey. Making progress?" He nodded toward the stack of boxes. Rory shrugged guiltily.  
  
"Not much. I got hung up on this box."  
  
Jess rolled up his sleeves and found the tape cutter. He sliced another box open and delved in. Inside were her pictures, tons of them, in the frames she collected. Each frame was weird and funky: there was a gold one with swirls cut in the wide woodwork, a plastic one with different colored squares on it, a heavy silver one with engraving...  
  
Finally he happened upon his favorite picture. It had been taken two years ago, at the end of their senior year of high school. Lorelai had taken it from a distance. The two were on the bridge, their favorite spot in Stars Hollow. Rory had been sitting in between Jess' legs, and they were dangling their bare feet into the water. Her head had been tilted up, attentively listening to something he was saying, and he had been bending down to kiss her.  
  
"That's a good shot. It's my favorite," Rory said, behind his shoulder.  
  
"Mine too," Jess responded. Rory leaned down and dropped a kiss on his cheek, then returned to her box. Smiling to himself, Jess continued through the box, primarily pictures. When he got to the bottom, he almost laughed. There was an old, worn copy of A Farewell to Arms, and Rory had attempted to take some notes in the margins. Looking up, Jess silently watched Rory work through her box, her mouth curved faintly upwards. Rory looked up as well and raised her eyebrows. Jess held up the book, and Rory blushed, then looked down again.  
  
An hour passed them by. Jess had gotten through three boxes, and put her millions of pictures around the apartment. Rory had just finished with her first box and was moving onto a box of clothing, which she half-carried, half-dragged into the living room. On a whim, Jess picked out a CD and stuck it in the player.  
  
"Ahh, blessed music," Rory said, re-entering to room. "Who?"  
  
"Mix."  
  
Rory nodded and slit another box open. She pulled out a bunch of last year's college textbooks and sighed.   
  
"Please tell me you're not going to re-read those," Jess said, his eyebrows raised.  
  
"I doubt it. But you never know when you're going to need this information."  
  
He shook his head and picked up the box of shoes to carry into the bedroom. "How many shoes do you need?" he asked when he returned.  
  
"Well, at least enough to pack one full box."  
  
"You're insane."  
  
"Says the man with twenty-three spatulas."  
  
"Yeah, well, at least those are nice and light."  
  
"My shoes aren't that heavy."  
  
"No? Have you picked up those gigantic snow boots you have?"  
  
"Yeah, I seem to recall carrying them up a few flights of stairs," Rory shot back.  
  
Jess stood up and moved closer to her. "You calling me a wimp?"  
  
Brushing off her hands on her dirty jeans, Rory faced him. "You calling me a shoe horse?"  
  
"Yeah," Jess said immediately, stepping closer.  
  
"Well, then I'm calling you a wimp." Rory slid up to him, so that there was less than two inches of space between them.  
  
"Good to know." Jess grabbed her face and pulled her to him. Electricity ran through their bodies, propelling them as close together as possible. Rory's mouth opened invitingly, and Jess eagerly dove into her mouth with his tongue. He backed up swiftly, and Rory's back hit the wall, jarring the pictures hanging on it. Eventually, they broke apart, panting. Rory smiled. "What?"  
  
"The song."  
  
A Marvin Gaye song was playing softly on the stereo, and Jess smiled as well.  
  
"You put this CD in on purpose," Rory surmised.  
  
"Sure did," Jess agreed.  
  
"I'm impressed," she said, standing on her toes and bringing his lips down to hers.  
  
"I knew you would be," Jess mumbled into her mouth.  
  
"Let's Get it On" echoed through the room as they stood, kissing, night descending slowly on the city. 


End file.
